Learning Communities and the Completion Agenda

Learning communities are widely recognized as a powerful pedagogy that promotes deep learning and student engagement, while also addressing a range of challenges that plague higher education. The Completion Agenda represents a complex set of intersecting priorities advocated by federal and state government, nonprofit organizations, colleges, and universities that shift the national focus from expanding access to degree completion. Policy shifts and emerging educational practices aligned with the Completion Agenda such as dual credit courses, prescriptive degree maps, and the expansion of online general education courses are considered in terms of their impact on the administration of learning community programs. Although subtle adjustments in curricula may be necessary, learning communities remain critically important to preserving the quality of student learning and the integrity of undergraduate curricula in a policy environment that sometimes seems to emphasize efficiencies in degree completion above all else. Kathy E. Johnson is Dean of University College, Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Cross-cultural Student Teaching Internship Engagement

Best Our Husky Compact Reflection for Engage as a Member of a Diverse and Multicultural World . Abstract This project was orchestrated by Levi Johnson, a graduate intern for the Confucius Institute (CI) as part of the College Counseling and Student Development program, and Kai Zhou, a visiting scholar at the CI, to strengthen and enhance the experience of 12 student intern teachers from across China. They have been involved at several locations around Minnesota and North Dakota teaching Chinese exploratory language classes, Chinese as a second language, and Chinese immersion programs. The goal of this project was to promote the personal and professional development of the student interns during this year long internship for their masters degree in China. After an initial week-long orientation on campus in August, each student teaching intern embarked to begin their experience at their respective school to start the academic year. To guide them in processing the experience together, we had weekly facilitated discussions using Zoom Media to connect and reflect upon positive aspects, challenges, and goals with their personal and professional teaching in Minnesota. We had a Mid-October retreat where we gathered together for leadership and team building activities, as well as further processing their experience and how they may apply the knowledge from the retreat into their classroom teaching strategies and interactions with their students. All were encouraged to create weekly blogs to share their critical reflections of teaching and learning within their classrooms. We will be participating in another professional development opportunity with all of them together at Saint Paul College for the Students United Advocacy Conference, to gain more cultural insight into changes in higher education and advocacy for student groups. Through this awareness they have a better understanding to serve their K-12 students who may be facing similar struggles and advocating for their success. We aspire to have this project model replicated at other CI locations around the globe

Disrupting the Status Quo: Forging a Path to Promotion that Explicitly Recognizes and Values Faculty Work Focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

This article focuses on the importance of creating new pathways to promotion and tenure that explicitly recognize and reward excellence related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We explain the approach we have taken at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Challenges to the status quo related to faculty systems of evaluation are reviewed, as well as the urgency afforded by the interconnectedness of a global pandemic, an economic recession, and a national reckoning with respect to race that could accelerate reforms in higher education. We reflect upon eight critical lessons learned when implementing a new pathway to promotion that recognizes integrated excellence in DEI activities. We hope the lessons we learned will inspire other institutions to lead similar transformational change efforts aimed at disrupting systems that historically have created inequities in the retention and advancement of faculty from marginalized groups

Collaboration Between Universities and Public Schools for Improved Student Achievement: A Report on the Progress of a Developing Partnership

This article reports the progress of one project aimed at bringing together professionals from post-secondary and K-12 environments. The project is being implemented at Richards Middle (RMS) in Columbus, Georgia and involves a collaborative partnership between several universities and RMS, resulting in a school-based evaluation initiative with direct implications for strengthening leadership, training, and instructional practices in schools. Faculty researchers from three universities from two states, Troy University, Columbus State University, and Auburn University are working collaboratively with faculty and staff of Richards Middle School on an inquiry with a three-fold purpose. The primary goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme in its first year of implementation in the sixth grade. A second goal of the investigation is to evaluate the effectiveness of the staff training and development process employed during the initial year in terms of effective professional learning practices. A third goal is to investigate the effectiveness of the collaborative process itself in terms of the implementation of the dialogic approach discussed in Clark, et al. (1996)

Harnessing the Risk-Related Data Supply Chain: An Information Architecture Approach to Enriching Human System Research and Operations Knowledge

An Information Architecture facilitates the understanding and, hence, harnessing of the human system risk-related data supply chain which enhances the ability to securely collect, integrate, and share data assets that improve human system research and operations. By mapping the risk-related data flow from raw data to useable information and knowledge (think of it as a data supply chain), the Human Research Program (HRP) and Space Life Science Directorate (SLSD) are building an information architecture plan to leverage their existing, and often shared, IT infrastructure

Knowledge is not everything: Analysis of children’s performance on a haptic comparison task

Abstract The relative effects of developmental level and domain-specific knowledge on children's ability to identify and make similarity decisions about object concepts based only on haptic (touch) information were investigated. Children aged 4-9 years with varying levels of dinosaur knowledge completed a cross-comparison task in which they haptically explored pairs of familiar (dinosaur) and unfamiliar (sea creature) models that varied in terms of their degree of differentiability. Older children explored models more exhaustively, found more differentiating features and consequently made fewer errors than younger children did. High knowledge enabled children to identify models correctly, but was also associated with the use of a hypothesis testing strategy, which led children to make greater numbers of ''miss'' errors on the cross-comparison task. Performance in the control domain illustrated that the hypothesis testing strategy was specific to the high knowledge domain. Potential explanations for the role of knowledge and development in haptic exploration are considered.

The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) I. Overview and the diverse environments of Lyman limit systems at z<1

We present initial results from the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS). CUBS is designed to map diffuse baryonic structures at redshift z<~1 using absorption-line spectroscopy of 15 UV-bright QSOs with matching deep galaxy survey data. CUBS QSOs are selected based on their NUV brightness to avoid biases against the presence of intervening Lyman Limit Systems (LLSs) at zabs~ 17.2 over a total redshift survey pathlength of dz=9.3, and a number density of n(z)=0.43 (-0.18, +0.26). Considering all absorbers with log N(HI)/cm^-2 > 16.5 leads to n(z)=1.08 (-0.25, +0.31) at z<1. All LLSs exhibit a multi-component structure and associated metal transitions from multiple ionization states such as CII, CIII, MgII, SiII, SiIII, and OVI absorption. Differential chemical enrichment levels as well as ionization states are directly observed across individual components in three LLSs. We present deep galaxy survey data obtained using the VLT-MUSE integral field spectrograph and the Magellan Telescopes, reaching sensitivities necessary for detecting galaxies fainter than 0.1L* at d<~300 physical kpc (pkpc) in all five fields. A diverse range of galaxy properties is seen around these LLSs, from a low-mass dwarf galaxy pair, a co-rotating gaseous halo/disk, a star-forming galaxy, a massive quiescent galaxy, to a galaxy group. The closest galaxies have projected distances ranging from d=15 to 72 pkpc and intrinsic luminosities from ~0.01L* to ~3L*. Our study shows that LLSs originate in a variety of galaxy environments and trace gaseous structures with a broad range of metallicities.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS in pres

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Therapy Affects Left Ventricular Mass in Patients With Ejection Fraction >40% After Acute Myocardial Infarction

AbstractObjectives. We tested the hypothesis that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy decreases left ventricular (LV) mass in patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) >40% and no evidence of heart failure after their first acute Q wave myocardial infarction (MI).Background. Recently, ACE inhibitor therapy has been shown to have an early mortality benefit in unselected patients with acute MI, including patients without heart failure and a LVEF >35%. However, the effects on LV mass and volume in this patient population have not been studied.Methods. Thirty-five patients with a LVEF >40% after their first acute Q wave MI were randomized to titrated oral ramipril (n = 20) or conventional therapy (control, n = 15). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed an average of 7 days and 3 months after MI provided LV volumes and mass from summated serial short-axis slices.Results. Left ventricular end-diastolic volume index did not change in ramipril-treated patients (62 ± 16 [SD] to 66 ± 17 ml/m2) or in control patients (62 ± 16 to 68 ± 17 ml/m2), and stroke volume index increased significantly in both groups. However, LV mass index decreased in ramipril-treated patients (82 ± 18 to 73 ± 19 g/m2, p = 0.0002) but not in the control patients (77 ± 15 to 79 ± 23 g/m2). Systolic arterial pressure did not change in either group at 3-month follow-up.Conclusions. In patients with a LVEF >40% after acute MI, ramipril decreased LV mass, and blood pressure and LV function were unchanged after 3 months of therapy. Whether the decrease in mass represents a sustained effect that is associated with a decrease in morbid events requires further investigation.(J Am Coll Cardiol 1997;29:49–54)